Destiny: Quantic Dreams Book 3 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (dark books to read txt) 📕

she jumped at the echoing blasts that made their way into the bunker. I waved at her and smiled. Her brows furrowed, as if trying to figure out why the strange woman was acting so happy when the world was clearly ending. I pointed to myself and mouthed “Fiona”. She nodded and took her thumb out of her mouth. “Becky.” I laughed and reached a hand across the space where she took it. My grandmother’s name was Rebecca. The way Dad talked about her you’d think that she was a pillar of unwavering strength. He said she was always there to protect her children, no matter the cost. Perhaps she had come back to me in this little girl—a sign that we were being watched over.

I pulled down one of my eyelids and stuck my tongue out at Becky. She giggled and stuck her tongue back at me. When I blew my cheeks up like a monkey, she left the bed and toddled my way before poking both cheeks with tiny fingers to let the air out. Her mother stopped what she was doing and reached out to call the girl back but nodded in understanding at a look from me. I screwed my nose up and snorted like a pig and Becky giggled some more, copying the gesture by holding the end of her nose up.

“That’s your momma and daddy, huh Becky?” I had to talk loudly to be heard, but I needed to do something to stay sane.

“Uh huh.”

“And they’re taking good care of you, right?” I pointed to her parents who were busy talking to each other, their foreheads touching.

“Yeah.”

“Are you scared of all the big booms?” She shivered a little.

“Yeah.” I thought of the stories I used to tell Marcus at bedtime. There had to be a good one to entertain this girl.

“Well let me tell you something. Do you know the story of the god Thor?” Becky shook her head. “Thor is the god of thunder. He lives in the sky with his two goats. The ancient people used to say that whenever it thundered that mighty Thor was riding his wagon through the sky. They believed that lightning came from his hammer striking down and sparking.”

“What’s thunder?” It hadn’t occurred to me that the girl wouldn’t have had the chance to see a thunderstorm in her lifetime. Weather rolled through the virtual world occasionally but it was possible to deter it from your house if you wished.

“Thunder is kind of like this, but smaller.” I pointed up to the ceiling as another impact rang through the bunker. “It’s when the sky rumbles and you see big streaks of light cut through the clouds. It’s really cool. When we go back outside, would you like me to show you one?” Becky smiled and nodded emphatically. “You got it. I think your parents are looking for you, but I want you to do something for me. Every time you hear ones of those big booms, I want you to imagine it’s Thor’s wagon rumbling through the sky drawn by his goats. Can you do that for me?”

“Yeah!” She skipped back to her family’s assigned bed and picked up a stuffed bear and started playing with it.

The distraction had helped me too. The population had made its way into the bunker and it was sealed up. Marcus and Eliza showed up and hugged me.

“I made a new friend.” I gestured toward Becky who waved absentmindedly to us.

“Of course you did.” Eliza chuckled and sat on the bed next to me. “You doing all right?” I nodded and lay back on my pillow. Inhabitants of the base filed down the rows of bunks with flashlights aimed at the ceilings. We were encouraged to get some sleep but it was almost impossible. The barrage continued through the night, ground-shaking impacts that were so inconsistent the moment you started to drift off, another one hit. As I lay awake at some unknown hour I saw the ceiling crack. The break in the concrete wasn’t large, but it was there. If the bunker collapsed on us, at least it would be quick.

I must have drifted off at some point because the next thing I knew Eliza was shaking me awake. The bombing was over and the population was returning to their usual quarters. The damage done overnight was minimal, all things considered. There was some damage to passageways and one of the water filtration systems had been disabled, but the higher-ups assured us that the repairs would restore things to normal quickly. Eliza was invited into the shelter’s ‘command center’ where she was brought up to speed. The initial response to the attack was to fire up the base’s limited defense systems but David stopped them. Revealing the defense systems would only alert the androids as to where they were. Any forces the surface to air missiles would take out wouldn’t make enough of a difference when it meant the bombers would take them out completely. The intelligence the androids had was limited. The base ran regular drone flights around the perimeter and the androids liked to keep to themselves. Limited intelligence meant that the bombings were random. In choosing to shelter rather than defend we had saved dozens of lives.

I wanted to help in the recovery efforts but I was shuttled back to the infirmary. The medics weren’t thrilled with my dizzy spell the night before. Back on to the IV I went. They made sure to take extra images of my brain, lest a rogue aneurysm have formed. I rolled my eyes but cooperated.

It wasn’t until the next evening that I got more information. The androids had sent a message to the leaders of the base. Surrender the humans sheltered within, or suffer the consequences. I felt a massive sense of guilt; it was my fathers and my own actions that had provoked the androids. The two of us, however well intentioned, had set off a series of events